Sunday, February 5, 2012

Girl Time

I am at a coffee shop to write this post and I cannot suppress my smile looking at these two girls. Glory means "shining" and Elena means "bright torch" and I love how they are infusing energy into those words and making them vibrantly true in our lives.

Yesterday afternoon, Sam took Manny to the barber shop and to look at some houses. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, but Glory and Elena were in their underwear and I was enjoying having laid back time at home. So, instead of going out, we cleaned the shower.

My mom talks about what a revelation it was to clean the shower after my sister and I were both in some kind of school. So easy, so quick, so conflict-free. Though I believe her, I have yet to clean any of my showers while the kids are in school. The thought crosses my mind, and six other thoughts immediately crowd in to crush any kind of shower cleaning impulse. I'd so much rather be cooking in my sunny kitchen.

But I only had to walk in the general vicinity of the shower to realize there was no more room for excuses or delay. So I asked Glory if she wanted to help me clean the shower. She was so excited and said, "You have to get naked to clean the shower!"

One minute later, after some clear thought, she turned to me again and said, "No grown-ups get naked. Just kids."

I gave them scrub brushes, turned on the water and they were ecstatic. They danced and sang the entire time. Elena hung her soaking purple stretch pants over her head like hair and sang to the tune of the Hallejuah chorus, "I AM MARY! I AM MARY! I am Mary, I am Mary, I A-AAM MARY!!" Since Christmas, Mary is one of the characters the kids play, alongside Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader.

After 10 minutes, I was feeling enlivened by my progress. The tub was sparkling and the grime was disappearing and Elena had changed the lyrics of her song to, "I'm a PRINCESS!"

When I finished cleaning, I was soaking wet and needed a real shower. The girls decorated themselves with all my wet clothes. Glory had my underwear over one shoulder and around her waist like it was a sash. They each had one of my shirts around their neck like big, red cowl neck scarves and Glory had my capri stretch pants tied around her waist with her little bottom totally exposed. It took concerted persuasion to convince them to take all that stuff off. They were determined to wear it the rest of the day.

The girls got dressed while I finished the rest of the bathroom and took the dance party onto the deck. It is amazing to see two people delight in one another as much as Glory and Elena can when they are in the twin zone. Hugs, kisses and endless giggles.

We went downstairs to make dinner and I let them watch an episode of Strawberry Shortcake, which is so over the top girly that it is hard for Manny to watch, which is saying a lot, because that boy would watch senate hearings on CNN...while they are adjourned. Eight minutes in, Glory told me it was too scary (Strawberry and her friends had somehow become mermaids under the sea) and that I needed to change it. I was about to when Elena promised Glory, "I'll 'tect you. I'll 'tect you Gory."

The boys got back and we had dinner and got ready for bed. When it was time for storytime, I was being silly and pretending like Sam was one of my kids too. I told Manny, Glory and Elena that they needed to take care of Sammy because he was so little. Glory got indignant from her thumb-sucking, blankie snuggling position and yelled, "Hey! I'm the littlest one in this family!"

It's time to go home and get ready for Charlie's 5th birthday party this afternoon. We are supposed to go as farm animals and Charlie will be the farmer. The kids are so excited to be chickens and lay eggs all over Charlie's house with his gifts inside. I am not good with costumes and am considering just writing "CHICKEN" across their forehead with my eyeliner pencil. But it doesn't matter. The kids make anything fun. Any prop or costume piece will do, as long as they have each other.